1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a series of novel silicone alkoxylated esters which have terminal carboxyl groups that form salt complexes with certain amid containing cationic compounds to form very mild conditioning products suited for personal care applications like shampoos, body wash, hand wash and bath products.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a long felt need for a shampoo product that provides conditioning and softening properties when applied to the hair, and is at the same time mild to the hair, skin and eyes. This is most important in the area of baby shampoo, where tearing is an additional concern.
The classical way to get conditioning is to incorporate cationic compounds into the shampoo. These products provide acceptable softness and anti-static properties when applied to the hair, and a good after feel when applied to the skin, but are aggressive to the skin and eye, allowing for their use at low levels in general use products, and not at all in baby and sensitive skin products. Included in this group are compounds like stearyl dimethyl benzyl alkonium chloride and cetyl tri-methyl ammonium chloride. There have been few products mild enough to use in sensitive skin products.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,625, incorporated herein by reference, issued March 1994 to O""Lenick et al describes a class of carboxy substituted silicone compounds useful as raw materials in the practice of the current invention. It is by proper selection of the compounds of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,625 and the cationic amido compound that the products of the present invention are prepared.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,544, issued Feb. 2, 1971, to Haulska et al likewise discloses carboxy substituted silicone polymers. These polymers are also useful as raw materials in the preparation of the compounds of the present invention.
It is the object of the present invention to provide novel silicone fatty amido quat compounds having outstanding conditioning properties at low concentrations and at the same time are very mild to the skin and eye.
These compounds are substantive to the surface of hair and have increased solubility in fatty materials including mineral oil, fatty triglycerides and traditional fatty quaternary ammonium compounds. It needs to be clearly understood that with the introduction of silicone into the molecule and with the formation of a complex (a salt) the resulting conditioning complex has unique properties.
Traditionally, one would think of a conditioner as having a water-loving (hydrophilic) group and a water-hating (hydrophilic)group. We have learned this approach, while simplistic is not accurate. The water-hating (hydrophobic) group is insoluble in water, but can be either a silicone or oil soluble group, or in a preferred case both.
In order to make the compounds of the current invention, we consider the molecule as having a water loving (hydrophilic group) an oil loving (oleophilic group) and silicone loving (siliphilic group) in the molecule. The group opposites then are three, hydrophobic (water hating), oleophobic (oil hating), siliphobic (silicone hating). Consequently, hydrophobic (water hating) materials can be either oleophilic or siliphilic. oleophobic (oil hating) materials may be either hydrophilic or siliphilic. Siliphobic (silicone hating) materials may be either oleophilic or hydrophilic. Only by balancing the product and having a cationic charge on it, can the desired improved conditioning be achieved.
The present invention relates to complexes of novel silicone alkoxylated esters, which contain carboxyl groups that are combined with specific arnido quats to form the desired conditioning products.
The present invention is also directed toward a process for conditioning hair, which comprises contacting the hair with and effective conditioning amount of the compounds of the present invention. The effective conditioning concentration ranges from 0.01 to 25% by weight of the compound.